By John Rebchook

Jan. 25, 2005

Del Webb, developer of the Sun City retirement communities in Arizona and Las Vegas for the past 45 years, is bringing its first housing development to Colorado. The “active-adult” retirement community, Anthem Ranch, will have about 1,500 homes in the northeastern corner of Broomfield.

Del Webb, which hasn’t had a presence in Colorado since its former commercial real estate division exited during the sluggish office market in 1987, is part of Pulte Homes.

Pulte , based in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., also will build 1,600 homes without age restrictions in Anthem Highlands, east of Lowell Boulevard and west of Sheridan Boulevard, on a portion of the 2,648-acre development.  The entire development off Interstate 25 and Northwest Parkway is called Anthem Colorado at Broomfield. This will be the third Anthem development in the United States, with the other two in Las Vegas and Phoenix.

It’s by far the largest “age-qualified” community going forward in the metro area, said Mike Rinner of the Genesis Group. He notes that U.S. Home/Lennar Communities plans a much smaller active-retirement community in the Todd Creek community in Thornton.

“Del Webb has been looking at the Denver-area market for years,” said Bruce Stokes, division president of Pulte Homes.

The 3,100 homes in Anthem Colorado are estimated to have a completed value of about $1 billion in today’s dollars. The first homes are scheduled to open in October, with estimated completion in five to seven years. Home prices haven’t been set, but Stokes made some estimates.

“I’d say the typical home in Anthem Ranch would probably be in the low- to mid-$300,000s. We’d have some above that and some below it,” Stokes said. “For Anthem Highlands, I’d guess we’re looking from the mid-$200,000s to the $400,000s, with the average price around $325,000.”

Del Webb’s Anthem Ranch homes will range in size from about 1,500 square feet to 2,800 square feet. In Anthem Highlands, Pulte will build homes from about 2,100 square feet to 3,400 square feet.  The site also includes 900 acres – about the size of the Denver Tech Center – for future commercial development. It eventually could have as much as 12 million square feet of retail and offices, and even a hotel or two.

The commercial portion, which will take many more years to build out than the residential, could have a completed value of about $2.5 billion, according to industry estimates.

Pulte bought the land, formerly called Preble Creek, in 2001 for about $67 million, or about $25,000 an acre. The same year, Pulte bought Del Webb for about $1.7 billion, which at the time created the largest home-building company in the United States, a title now held by D.R. Horton.

Anthem is the largest development planned in Broomfield, said City Manager George Di Ciero. It accounts for more than 15 percent of the entire land mass in the city. About 865 acres will remain as open space, including a 90-acre park, the biggest in the city, which Pulte is donating to Broomfield.  Anthem will bring housing with diverse prices to Broomfield, one of the city’s priorities, Di Ciero said.

Also of importance is Del Webb’s “age-qualified” restriction that home-owners be at least 55 years old. This “was something that the City Council was thinking about,” he said.

Plenty of water

However, having enough water will not be a concern, Di Ciero said.

“Broomfield has a pretty good water supply,” Di Ciero said. “We’re -really way ahead of the game. . . . We have enough water for our current and long-range needs.”

Scrapping plans for an 18-hole golf course will help with conservation. Because there’s a course in neighboring Vista Ridge, potential buyers in focus groups frowned on building a new one, said Bob Eck, general manager of the Anthem development.  Native plants will be used wherever possible to save water, he added.

Pulte ‘s Stokes said he expects 75 percent or more of the buyers to come from the Denver area. Others will be drawn to the community because their children or grandchildren live in the area, he said.

He said a number of residents in Del Webb’s Arizona communities also have shown interest, because they want to spend their summers in a cooler climate.  Stokes said he sees no sign that the Denver area is becoming overbuilt with active-adult retirement communities.

“I can tell you that in Phoenix, the demand has continued to far outstrip the supply,” he said. “Baby boomers are aging, and the trend is going to continue for at least another 15 or 20 years. . . . As Anthem gets its legs and grows, it’s really going to take off.”

INFOBOX: Anthem Colorado at Broomfield – A closer look at Del Webb and Pulte Homes’ 2,648-acre development near Interstate 25 and Northwest Parkway:

• Anthem Ranch: Del Webb’s active-adult community will have 1,500 homes and a 34,000-square-foot recreation center that includes a large exercise area and two swimming pools.
•  Anthem Highlands: Pulte Homes plans 1,600 homes, with no age rules, east of Lowell Boulevard and west of Sheridan Boulevard.
•  Open space: Encompasses 865 acres, almost a third of the development, with an expansive trail system, parks with playgrounds, and natural areas.
• Commercial: 900 acres zoned for 12 million square feet. Land will include offices, retail, a town center and one or two hotels. Pulte will sell the land to developers.
• Del Webb has 35 active-adult communities in 15 states, with plans to open in five additional states this year, including Colorado.
• It has sold nearly 80,000 homes in Sun City communities since 1960.
•  In Denver, the company built a VA hospital after World War II.
•  The company was founded by Delbert Eugene Webb in 1928. He was a close friend and golfing buddy of Howard Hughes, Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Barry and Robert Goldwater.
• Webb built the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas for mobster Bugsy Siegel. Later, his company would become the largest gaming operator in Las Vegas, at one time owning the Sahara Hotel, Mint Casino, Thunderbird Hotel, Primadonna, Lucky Casino, the Nevada Club, Claridge and High Sierra.
• Webb was featured on Time magazine’s cover in 1964. He died in 1974 of cancer.

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PulteGroup sold the land in an all-cash deal to the East Coast-based private real estate firm, Wheelock Street Capital LLC. A PulteGroup subsidiary, Del Webb, launched the development in 2005 with great fanfare. Anthem Ranch is an age-qualified community, which requires residents to be at least 55 years old. PulteGroup and Wheelock  agreed not to release the terms and conditions of the sale, but PulteGroup will not realize a material loss or gain on the land sale.

Stew Mosko, Senior Vice President, Cassidy Turley/Fuller Real Estate, said he believes that Pulte initially bought the “raw,” or undeveloped land, for $20,000 to as much as $30,000 per acre. “But that was before the improvements were installed,” such as roads and utilities, he added.

Mosko, a long-time land broker, said PulteGroup is fortunate to be able to sell the land for about what it has in it. “In today’s markets, typically sales like this are for a loss,” Mosko noted.

Mosko said he wonders what the sale means for the PulteGroup in the Denver area.

“Really, Anthem was their flagship community,” he said.

And it is very nice. He knows someone who lives in the age-restricted portion of the community, and he said it was developed beyond his expectations.

“It’s a surprisingly good community,” Mosko said. “They didn’t build the golf course, as they were originally planning to do. Instead, that area has been turned into trails and open land. It really is a remarkable development.”

The sale to Wheelock includes the open space.

“Spectacular amenities” 

“We are very proud of the Anthem Highlands and Anthem Ranch communities, which are known for their spectacular array of amenities and for being a great place to call home,” said Patrick Beirne, PulteGroup West Area President. “This sale is consistent with PulteGroup’s capital allocation strategy and overall focus on driving greater returns on invested capital.”

PulteGroup is proud of the amenities it developed in its Broomfield community that it recently sold.

Beirne said PulteGroup is confident that Wheelock’s financial strength and understanding of master-planned community development will contribute to Anthem’s continued long-term success.

“We’ve enjoyed working with Wheelock on this complex transaction and have been impressed with their professionalism and the quality of their team,” Beirne said. Neither side used a broker in the transaction.

Wheelock Principal Dan Green said that his firm recognized the extraordinary care with which Anthem Colorado had been planned and created.

“We want to continue making Anthem the best place to live in the Front Range,” Green said. “And we look forward to working with builders eager to be part of this very popular community.”

Green said that Wheelock’s Denver partner, Jeff Handlin of Oread Capital and Development, would manage Anthem’s future development.

PulteGroup, one of the nation’s largest homebuilders, will maintain local customer service teams at Anthem and continue to provide warranty service to its current homeowners. PulteGroup is based in Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

Wheelock Street Capital LLC is a private real estate investment firm founded in 2008 by Merrick R. Kleeman and Jonathan H. Paul and headquartered in Greenwich, CT, and Boston. Backed by established institutional capital, Wheelock closed its latest investment fund in November 2011.

The company focuses on real estate investments throughout North America and will invest in both public and private market opportunities and in all parts of the capital structure. In the past two years the firm has acquired more than 10,000 residential lots within master-planned communities in Texas, Florida and North Carolina.

Wheelock has deep internal operational and management capabilities in residential real estate development and works with local partners who are land development and homebuilding industry veterans.

To learn what homes are for sale in the Broomfield area, please visit this COhomefinder.com link.

Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com

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Rick Garcia

Low-income people with disabilities in Steamboat Springs and Broomfield will have more access to affordable supportive housing thanks to $2.54 million in housing assistance announced today by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Nationally, $137 million in grants will help non-profit organizations produce accessible housing, offer rental assistance, and facilitate supportive services for persons with disabilities. An additional $12.6 million will be available for project rental assistance contracts.

The grant funding awarded under HUD’s Section 811 Supportive Housing programs will kick start construction or major rehabilitation for more than 170 housing developments in 42 different states and Puerto Rico.

“The Obama Administration is committed to helping our persons with disabilities find a decent, affordable place to live that is close to needed healthcare services and transportation,” said HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan.  “Recent bipartisan changes to the supportive housing program will allow us to better serve some of our more vulnerable populations who would otherwise be struggling to find a safe and decent home of their own.”

Garcia: Funding “vital”

HUD VIII Regional Administrator Rick M. Garcia, said Colorado’s share of the money will be put to good use.

“Today’s vital funding will provide affordable housing to persons with disabilities with access to needed services in Broomfield and Steamboat Springs,” Garcia said.

Imagine!, a non-profit group in Broomfield, will receive $637,700 for a Capital Advance and $68,100 for a three-year- rental subsidy. Capital Advance funding covers the cost of developing, acquiring, or rehabilitating the development.

The Broomfield non-profit plans to construct a six-bedroom group home for very low-income clients with developmental disabilities, plus a room for a residential manager. The home will be constructed to Enterprise Green Communities standards, which requires that it be built near services such as medical offices, shopping areas and public transportation.

Garcia said that Imagine! will receive $633,700 for Capital Advance and $68,100 for a three-year rental subsidy.  Imagine! plans to construct a six-bedroom Group Home for very low-income persons with developmental disabilities, plus a room for a resident manager. The Home will be constructed using Enterprise Green Communities standards and built near services, such as medical offices, shopping areas, and public transportation

“In Steamboat Springs, Horizons Specialized services, Inc. will construct an eight-unit independent living project for very low-income persons with developmental disabilities,” Garcia said.  “The Capital Funding Advance totals $1,272,700 and the three-year rental subsidy is $79,500.”

That project in the resort community also will be near medical offices, shopping and public transportation. Trained staff will be available to assist the residents on a daily basis with the goal of enabling the persons with disabilities to live as independently as possible.

Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com

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The good news is that foreclosure filings in Colorado barely rose from 2008 – only a 0.23 percent increase, according to a national report.

The bad news is that Colorado still is ranked No. 10, according to RealtyTrac, based in Irvine, Calif.

The report showed 50,514 total properties in Colorado with some kind of foreclosure action, which equates to 2.37 percent of all housing units in foreclosure. The U.S. average is 2.21 percent.  The report also shows one out of every 42 households in foreclosure, compared with one of every 45 for the U.S. average. Foreclosure activity in Colorado, according to RealtyTrac, rose 28.2 percent from 2007, far below the 120 percent average national increase.

“It’s kind of bizarre that Colorado is still in the top 10,” said Ryan McMaken, noting that the overall rate in Colorado is very close to the national rate. Also, Colorado’s foreclosure activity has been basically flat, while it is still rising in many other parts of the country.

“RealtyTrac combines all of the different kind of foreclosure actions,”McMaken noted, while he separates new filings and homes that actually go to foreclosure sales.

“If you dig deeper, you will find that while our filings are still climbing, the number of sales are going down,” as banks work with borrower to modify loans, he noted. “We do show a net increase in activity, and we probably will continue to do so, as long as the number of filings continue to rise.”

Still, rather than the 10th worst state in the nation as far as foreclosures, he said Colorado is really more in the middle of the pack, he said. That is also affirmed my Mortgage Banker Association numbers, which shows Colorado in the middle of the U.S., as far as delinquent loans.

An earlier report by InsideRealEstateNews.com found that while foreclosure filings in the Denver area rose by 6.4 percent in 2009 from 2008, most of the percentage increases were found in Boulder, Broomfield and Douglas counties, while activity was flat or dropped slightly in Denver and Adams county. (For that report, please visit this blog.)

Nationwide, RealtyTrac  found more than 3.9 million foreclosure actions -  default notices, scheduled foreclosure auctions and bank repossessions — were reported on 2. 8 million properties in the U.S.  in 2009, a 21 percent increase in total properties from 2008 and a 120 percent increase in total properties from 2007.

Four states accounted for more than 50 percent of the nation’s 2009 total, with more than 1.4 million properties receiving foreclosure filings in California, Florida, Arizona and Illinois. And almost half of those – 632,573 – were in California.

“That means that 46 other states split the remaining half,” noted McMaken. He said some people might think that the foreclosure pain was spread fairly evenly among the states, but that is not the case.

“What that means a lot of states are clumped together, and there will be a very small percent separating them,” McMaken said.

Foreclosure filings were reported on 349,519 U.S. properties foreclosure filings  on 349,519 U.S. properties in December, a 14 percent jump from November  and a 15 percent increase from December 2008 — when a similar monthly jump occurred. Despite the increase in December, foreclosure activity in the fourth quarter decreased 7 percent from the third quarter, although it was still up 18 percent from the fourth quarter of 2008.

“As bad as the 2009 numbers are, they probably would have been worse if not for legislative and industry-related delays in processing delinquent loans,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac.

“After peaking in July with over 361,000 homes receiving a foreclosure notice, we saw four straight monthly decreases driven primarily by short-term factors: trial loan modifications, state legislation extending the foreclosure process and an overwhelming volume of inventory clogging the foreclosure pipeline. Despite all the delays, foreclosure activity still hit a record high for our report in 2009, capped off by a substantial increase in December. In the long term a massive supply of delinquent loans continues to loom over the housing market, and many of those delinquencies will end up in the foreclosure process in 2010 and beyond as lenders gradually work their way through the backlog.”

Nevada led the nation last year, with more than 10 percent of the homes receiving some type of a foreclosure action in 2009, giving it the dubious distinction of being No. 1 for foreclosures for the third consecutive year.

Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com or 303-945-6865.

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For example, the report shows rental rates rising in the Boulder/Broomfield market.

“But rents are not increasing, if you compare the same product over the same product,”  said Allredge, of Jericho Properties Realty in Lakewood. “The product is simply more expensive in those markets. It’s all about the mix. Rents are soft throughout the metro area.”

And yet, overall, he thinks that the worst may be over for the housing rental market.

“I would say I am cautiously bullish,” Allredge said. “I think we all agree from a landlord’s perspective, we are showing signs that we are heading in the right direction.”

Although the overall third-quarter vacancy rate for housing rentals rose to 4.6 percent from  atypically low 3.4 percent in the third quarter 2008, it is down from 5.2 percent in the second quarter.

“It’s still below 5 percent, which is considered good, and it is hard to imagine it can fall much below 3.4 percent, so it is not shocking it is up from a year ago,” said Ryan McMaken, spokesman of the Colorado Division of Housing, which released the report authored by University of Denver Business Professor Gordon Von Stroh.

Although vacancy rates typically drop from the second quarter to the third quarter for seasonal reasons, the overall trend of low vacancies is positive, Allredge said.

“The market is really pretty flat for rental rates,” Allredge said. “But I think there is reason for some optimism with some job formation and with unemployment dropping, Denver is a bit ahead of the curve compared to the rest of the country. We never became as overbuilt as other parts of the country did. The laws of supply and demand really do work, if you let them.”

Allredge also said that the so-called “shadow market,” seemed to have peaked last year and early this year. The shadow market, discussed in an earlier blog, is a hard-to-count inventory of homes. Part of the shadow market comes from people unable to sell their homes who are renting them, and some of it is owned by banks that have yet to put them on the market.

“That is the majority of our new product in our (rental) portfolio,” Allredge said. “We get very few properties bought by investors with the idea of immediately putting them into the rental pool. But I do think the shadow market had a bigger impact last year and the first part of this year. Foreclosures seem to be softening a bit.”

Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com or 303-945-6865.

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Indeed, three of the five most expensive ZIP Codes are those that serve Boulder.

Overall, the median home prices in Boulder County – which also includes Broomfield, Erie, Lafayett, Longmont, Louisville, Lyons and Nederland – were down only 1.4 percent from a year earlier, according to data compiled by California-based DataQuick.com.

As to be expected, the median prices in Boulder proper were much more expensive than in nearby communities.

The lofty prices in Boulder, even during this economic and housing downturn, is no surprise to Chris Mygatt, president of Coldwell Banker in Colorado.

Although he now lives in Washington Park, Mygatt grew up in Boulder and lived there for much of his career in real estate.

Boulder owners can hold on

He said he is generalizing, but there are  two main type of  luxury homeowners in Boulder and neither are buffeted by economic downturns as most people.

“There are a significant number of buyers who purchased their upper-end properties in Boulder, who derive their wealth from their families,” Mygatt said. “These people have landed in Boulder and just love Boulder. These people are not terribly connected to the U.S. economy. Period. ”

Another significant owners of expensive homes in Boulder are those who a “true entrepreneurs,” who have made so much money they can weather any downturn.

What the data shows is that the most expensive ZIP Code, 80302, where the median price of a home sold was $481,325, showed a 34.8 percent drop in sales in the third quarter.

And that is to be expected, among both the categories of owners described by Mygatt.

Prices stable

“Sales slow down significantly, but prices keep their legs,” Mygatt said. “In Cherry Hills, if someone needs to sell their home and they first list it at $4.3 million, they keep lowering the price until it sells. In Cherry Hills, there are a lot of captains of industry. They are directly effected by what happens in the U.S. economy. If they get over-extended, they absolutely must sell.”

But many owners in Boulder, although they have a lot of their net worth tied in in their homes, would just wait it out.

“They might have a net worth of $7 million and $2 or $3 million of that in their homes,” Mygatt said. “They might like to sell their home, but they don’t have to, so they don’t. They”ll say, “Boulder is a really cool place so I’ll just live here another two or three years and sell my home when the market is better.”

City	ZIP Code	Median Price
Boulder	80302	$481,325
Boulder	80304	$470,000
Denver	80209	$403,000
Littleton	80124	$400,000
Boulder	8005	$381,000

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Movement in new foreclosure filings was mixed.  Arapahoe, Boulder, Larimer and Mesa Counties all reported sizable increases year over year, while Adams, Denver, Douglas, El Paso, and Weld Counties reported decreases in foreclosure filing activity over the same period.

Decreases were more widespread with foreclosure sales. Sales totals dropped in all counties except Boulder and Mesa Counties. Adams, Arapahoe, and Denver reported year over year decreases of over 30 percent.

Overall, foreclosure sales fell 30 percent, year over year.

Foreclosure filings in several counties.

Foreclosure filings fell 7.1 percent from September to October and foreclosure sales fell 9.8 percent.

Comparing year-over-year, foreclosure sales fell 30.1 percent overall with totals falling from 2,171 to 1,518.

Mesa County reported the largest increases in sales activity with an increase of 225 percent. Foreclosure sales also increased significantly in Boulder County with an increase of 28 percent.

Foreclosure  filings totals fell 7.1 percent overall from September to October of this year, with totals falling from 3,480 to 3,234.

Totals fell in every county except Denver County and Mesa County where they increased 6 percent and 21 percent respectively.

Pueblo reported the largest fall in totals with a decline of 37 percent.

Foreclosure sales totals increased 21 percent overall from September to October of this year, with totals rising from 1,682 to 1,518.

Only Boulder County reported a sizable increase during this period with an increase of 18 percent. All other counties surveyed reported decreases, with the largest decreases occurring in El Paso and Larimer Counties.

Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com or 303-945-6865.

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In the seven-county area, there were 7,109 foreclosure filings in the third quarter, compared with 4,365 in the third quarter 2008. The biggest jump in each county – Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas and Jefferson – occurred in August compared with August 2008.

However, the jump in foreclosures was expected to some extent, because of a new state law that went into effect in August 2008. The law, HB 1402, requires lenders to send out letter to delinquent borrowers 30 days before foreclosure filings. That led to August 2008 foreclosure filings to be abnormally low. Overall, August filings were up 165 percent from August 2008.

‘It would seem that for year-over-year comparisons, the implementation of HB 1402 last year is certainly the most important factor in making that comparison,” said Ryan McMaken, spokesman for the Colorado Division of Housing.

“The September numbers from 2008 are also exceptionally low, and this seems to be related to the drop in totals brought on by 1402 as well,” he added. ” Looking at the numbers from earlier in 2008, monthly totals were up around 400 to even 600. They only really climbed to that level again in April of this year, and numbers have remained solidly high this year. So while the drop in August and September of last year does show an extremely large increase year-over-year, the numbers for July, August, and September of this year appear to be near the highest rates we’ve seen in the last couple of years.”

McMaken also noted that in the Denver metro area last year, the increase from September to October was more than 50% from 1,623 to 2,520. And in both 2007 and 2008, the fourth quarter experienced larger filings totals than the third quarter.

” Both facts lead us to not expect the fourth quarter to register significant drops in totals as compared to the third quarter,” he said

However, there also were jumps in September filings from a year earlier, although not as great as in August from August.

“I don’t think we will see any big decrease of any kind from here on out to the end of the year,” McMaken said.

In the first nine months of the year, there were 20,260 filings, a 5.4 percent increase from the 19,226 filings in the first nine months of 2008.

“I’m not surprised with the 5 percent increase,” McMaken said.

He noted that foreclosures also were expected to rise because lenders had declared voluntary moratoriums on pursuing last fall, which ended in the spring. Many lenders used that time to beef-up their departments to work with homeowners delinquent on their mortgage payments, he said.

And that segues into the bright spot in the foreclosure numbers.

“Lenders appear much more willing to work with borrowers on things like loan modifications more than they did in the past,” said Carol Snyder, public trustee for Adams County.

In the third quarter of this year, 746 homes went to the public trustee auctions, a 32.9 drop from the 1,113 foreclosure sales in the third-quarter of 2008.

“To me, that indicates that lenders are working with borrowers to let them modify their loans or refinance,”  she said.

“That is certainly what I am hearing and what foreclosure counselors are hearing,” McMaken said.

Some distressed borrowers, for example, are being offered 4 percent mortgages that are amortized over 40 years, allowing owners who were behind on their mortgages able to stay in their homes.

Tom Cryer, a broker with the Kentwood Co., last week said that lenders also may be reluctant to take possession of homes and put them on the market. He said that lenders may be hoping that the Obama administration will buy the homes or the delinquent loans from them at a better price than they they would flood the market with foreclosed homes.

“A lot of brokers walk around neighborhoods and we see vacant homes, which clearly are foreclosures,” Cryer said. “But these homes are not reflected in our numbers. If they were, the number of unsold homes on the market would be much higher.”

McMaken noted that the Treasury Department has bought up so many toxic loans that it has kept mortgage rates low, providing some relief to the housing market.

He said there are few signs that a a huge increase in demand is brewing that would allow the market to bail out the depressed housing market in the Denver area or across the nation.

And with unemployment growing and a wave of mortgage rates adjusting higher, many economists and observers expect another wave of foreclosures.

County	July 2008	July 2009	August 2008	August 2009	September 2008	September 2009
Adams	511	490	266	537	328	429
Arapahoe	454	590	167	554	348	555
Boulder	108	245	46	132	47	170
Broomfield	25	34	9	27	24	19
Denver	470	634	148	550	361	453
Douglas	176	222	111	284	53	234
Jefferson	352	390	151	301	210	359
Total	2,096	2,505	898	2,385	1,371	2,219
Percentage Change		19.5%		165%		61.8%

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Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com or 303-945-6865

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